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GAME POWER SUPPLY CONSIDERATIONS
JAMES F. MCNULTY
Vice President/Product Manager
Adtech Power, Inc.
Anaheim, California
Coin operated video games in many cases approach minicomputer complexity with up to several hundred IC chips involved in a rather hostile environment. These games sell at prices from $500 to over $2,000 and are expected to take in between $200 and $1000 per month. The prime considerations for game sales are: game interest, reliability, appearance, and cost. Reliability is a major factor for the following reasons:
- The distributor and operator groups are a fairly tightknit organization (Music Operators of America) and have many trade publications such as "Playmeter", "Coin Amusement", etc. Any field failure problems with a game become widespread knowledge in short order and greatly hinders sales of subsequent games by the offending manufacturer.
- Field service personnel from most distributor or operator organizations are usually electromechanically oriented and usually do not have the test equipment or skill for detailed circuit analysis and repair. Therefore, maintenance is usually on a modular level, i. e. video display, games board, or power supply. This frequently means long down time waiting for replacements and high warranty, freight, and repair cost to the manufacturer.
- The loss of operator revenue due to down time affects the manufacturer in two ways. There is an immediate loss of profitability due to abnormal warranty, freight, and repair cost and lost sales time in satisfying the irate customers and a second long term loss of revenue in future games sales due to the prior problems.
GAMES FAILURE MODES
Assuming a sound game design, most game failures fall into one of the following eight categories. Although most of these problems are not power supply induced, many can be eliminated by good power supply design.
- Infant mortality component failure.
- Heat induced failures.
- Erratic operation due to line noise.
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